Privacy Policy
Harsa Legal Professional Corporation (“Harsa Legal” or “We”) recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. As lawyers, we have a professional obligation to keep all information we receive within the lawyer-client relationship confidential. We are committed to protecting any personal information we hold. This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage your personal information and safeguard your privacy.
What Is “Personal Information?”
Personal information is any information about you or by which your identity could be deduced. It does not include the name, business address, or telephone number of an employee of an organization.
Why Do We Collect Personal Information From You?
We collect personal information from you to:
provide legal services to you in accordance with your instructions;
bill you for legal services rendered;
provide information to you about developments in the law; and
advise you of developments in the firm.
How Do We Collect Your Personal Information?
We collect information by lawful means only. We may collect personal information directly from you at the start of a retainer or during the course of our retainer.
Sometimes we may also obtain information about you from other sources, for example:
your agent or representative;
your insurance company;
your real estate agent in a property transaction;
a government agency or registry;
your employer, if we are acting for you at your employer’s request;
your accountant; or
other consultants or individuals obtained by you or with your consent to assist with your legal concerns.
Consent
Consent for the collection, use and/or disclosure of personal information may be obtained orally or in writing and may be expressly given or implied. In determining how we obtain your consent, we will consider the sensitivity of the personal information we collect, use, or disclose.
Use of Your Information
We use your personal information to provide legal advice and services to you, including for billing purposes. We may also use your personal information to include you in any direct marketing activities. If you tell us that you no longer want to receive information about our services or about new developments in the law, we will not send any further material.
We will not disclose your personal information to any third party to enable them to market their products and services without obtaining your express consent. For example, we do not provide our client mailing lists to other law firms or consultants we work with from time to time.
Disclosure of Your Personal Information
Under certain circumstances, we may disclose your personal information:
when we are required or authorized by law to do so; for example, if a court issues a subpoena;
when you have consented to the disclosure;
when the legal services we are providing to you require us to give your information to a third party (for example, to a lender in a real estate mortgage transaction), your consent will be implied, unless you tell us otherwise;
where it is necessary to collect fees;
if we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us (like computer backup services or archival file storage) and our privacy policy binds the third party or such third party has a privacy policy offering protections similar to ours;
if we engage expert witnesses on your behalf or interview potential witnesses in connection with your case;
if we retain other law firms in other jurisdictions on your behalf; or
if the information is already publicly available.
Updating Your Information
Since we use your personal information to provide legal services to you, it is important that the information be accurate and up-to-date. If any of your information changes during our retainer, please inform us so that we can make any necessary changes.
Is Your Personal Information Secure?
Harsa Legal takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. The steps taken to protect your information include:
restriction of access to electronically stored personal information;
deployment of technological safeguards like security software and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access;
internal password and security policies;
obligation of each lawyer to maintain client confidentiality under the Rules of Professional Conduct of the Law Society of Ontario.
Access to Your Personal Information
You may ask for access to any personal information we hold about you. Summary information is available on request. More detailed requests that require archival or other retrieval costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees.
Correcting Errors
If Harsa Legal holds information about you that is not accurate, complete, and up-to-date, Harsa Legal will take reasonable steps to correct it.
Can You Be Denied Access to Your Personal Information?
Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute. We may deny access when:
denial of access is required or authorized by law (for example, when a record containing personal information about you is subject to a claim of legal professional privilege by one of our clients);
information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings against you;
when granting you access would have an unreasonable impact on other people’s privacy;
when to do so would prejudice negotiations with you;
to protect our firm’s rights and property;
where the request is frivolous or vexatious.
If we deny your request for access to, or refuse a request to correct information, we will explain why.
How Long Do We Keep Your Personal Information?
We keep your personal information as long as is reasonably necessary for us to complete our dealings with you or as may be required or necessitated by law, whichever is longer.
Website
Our website may contain links to other sites which are not governed by the privacy policy. We only collect the information you provide us voluntarily by sending us an e-mail message, completing forms or using the links on the website. Harsa Legal collects and uses your name, address, telephone number, email address and other information you submit on or through the website or through other mediums for the purposes for which you provided the personal information, to respond to your inquiries or applications, and to provide you with updates and information that we think may be of interest to you. In providing Harsa Legal with any personal information on or through this website, you consent to the collection and use of that information for these stated purposes. We currently use cookies on our website. (“Cookies” are small text files that recognize repeat visitors and track their visits to a website.)
On our website, like most other commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information to optimize our web service. We may provide aggregated information to third parties, but these statistics do not include any identifiable personal information.
Communicating With Us
You should be aware that email is not a 100% secure medium, and you should be aware of this when contacting us to send personal or confidential information.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
Harsa Legal regularly reviews all of its policies and procedures, and we may change our Privacy Policy from time to time. Please review our website for updates.
Request for Access
If you have any questions or wish to access your personal information, please write to us, c/o Founding Lawyer.
Inquiries / Complaints
If you have any questions or concerns about how your personal information has, is or will be handled by Harsa Legal or if you would like to register a complaint, please contact us at info@harsalegal.com
(Ver. October 2024)